More questions arise in battle over $2.7M will

Sunday

Jul 27, 2014 at 2:00 AM

Portsmouth Police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin was told in early 2011 that his large inheritance from the late Geraldine Webber might not survive a legal challenge because of Webber's questionable mental capacity, according to a deposition by Webber's longtime accountant.

Elizabeth Dinan

Portsmouth Police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin was told in early 2011 that his large inheritance from the late Geraldine Webber might not survive a legal challenge because of Webber's questionable mental capacity, according to a deposition by Webber's longtime accountant.

The accountant, Bill MacDonald, was deposed July 2 and a transcript of that deposition was obtained by Seacoast Sunday. In it, MacDonald said he and attorney, David Mulhern, met with Webber because she wanted to change her will to benefit Goodwin, but both told her that her competency should be examined, in part because she claimed her Portsmouth home was worth "hundreds of millions of dollars."

"I said, Geri, if you think your house is worth that, than I think there is some doubt as to your mental capacity," MacDonald is quoted. "I did not recommend that she draft a new will without getting a doctor's approval of it. I'd have to say I was quite clear to her on that."

Webber's response was, according to her longtime accountant, "I'll kick you right in the balls."

Multiple parties allege in court that Goodwin unduly influenced Webber while she was impaired by dementia, while he has consistently denied the allegations. Goodwin is the primary beneficiary of Webber's $2.7 million estate, which includes a riverfront home, stocks and a Cadillac.

MacDonald said he and Mulhern met with Webber on Feb. 17, 2011, for the estate planning when "she was proposing changes to include (Goodwin) and I felt really strongly that she should follow attorney Mulhern's advice to make sure that she had the mental capacity to do that."

"I remember she was telling me that, you know, she got to know (Goodwin) because of the prowler investigation that was going on around her house and I think she became friends with him," MacDonald is quoted. "I guess she took comfort in that he was keeping an eye on the place, or helping her with the process anyway."

Asked if Webber described Goodwin as a friend or a neighbor, MacDonald said, "Well, I remember her describing him as a police officer."

MacDonald said during his deposition that he thought Webber had known Goodwin for about year before she wanted to make him her primary beneficiary.

"I found it an unusual bequest, certainly, given the length of time that she had known him," he said.

Portsmouth attorney Paul McEachern, who represents beneficiaries challenging Webber's last will and trust, is quoted in the deposition suggesting that Goodwin only knew Webber for four months when she began taking steps to leave him her wealth.

"I think giving a bequest to somebody that you've only known for a year is unusual," MacDonald responded. "So four months would make it more unusual."

In addition to being concerned about Webber's grasp of the value of her home, MacDonald said, he was also concerned about her not knowing where all of her stock certificates were. The accountant said the stocks were "a significant part of her wealth" and he "was concerned that if they were misplaced that we ought to be on top of it."

He said he told Webber he supported Mulhern's suggestion that her estate be managed at the county probate court, with assistance from an appointed guardian.

Webber, he said, appeared ready to seek other legal counsel because "she didn't like being told what to do."

Previous depositions in the case include testimony from two subsequent attorneys who were contacted to change Webber's will, before Hampton attorney Gary Holmes wrote her last will and trust in May 2012. Webber died seven months later at age 94.

Mulhern wrote a May 9, 2011, letter to Webber saying, "it is clear to me that serious professional questions have arisen about your testamentary capacity," according to court documents. But sometime before that letter was written, MacDonald said during his deposition, he and Mulhern met with Goodwin.

"The thing I remember most about that was asking if he was sure that, ethically, he felt comfortable that he could receive a bequest," MacDonald is quoted.

The accountant said he "wanted to make sure that (Webber) just didn't do it on a whim and then put him in a bad spot, for example."

"I just thought it would be appropriate to make sure that, ethically, he's OK receiving a bequest from an individual in his role as a police officer," MacDonald said. "I believe he said that he had already cleared it through his superiors and it was OK."

MacDonald said that if Goodwin named someone who gave him that ethical clearance, he didn't recall.

During the same meeting, Webber's accountant said, he and Mulhern told Goodwin they had concerns about Webber's "testamentary capacity" to change her will. Mulhern "made it clear that he wasn't going to produce a change of a will without getting a doctor's OK on it first," MacDonald said.

Described as Webber's accountant since the early 1990s, MacDonald said he did not know Goodwin had taken Webber to a Portsmouth bank to have her safe deposit box drilled open. A downtown bank executive said during a prior deposition that on July 29, 2011, Goodwin and Webber went to the bank to have her safe deposit box drilled open because she'd lost the key. Goodwin signed a card indicating he went into a private room with Webber to examine the contents, said the banker.

When MacDonald was questioned during his deposition by Goodwin's attorney, Chuck Doleac, he said he knew Webber used salty language throughout her life, that he did not know the extent of the assistance Goodwin provided Webber and that he did not believe Goodwin directly "made the change to the estate plan."

He was asked by Doleac, "Do you have any criticism of the friendship he provided?"

MacDonald answered, "I think an objective person would question the intent of the friendship."

City Attorney Robert Sullivan has been the municipal spokesperson for the case and declined to comment about the new details in MacDonald's deposition.

"Those are central issues in the case and will be resolved with mediation, or failing that, litigation," he said.

A mediation hearing is scheduled for Monday, July 28, but McEachern and his clients are declining to attend.

"Either people reach a complete agreement, or a judge issues an order," Sullivan said.

Manchester attorney David Eby is representing the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Society and The Shriners Hospital for Children. His clients were each $500,000 beneficiaries under Webber's 2009 will written by Portsmouth attorney Jim Ritzo, then were named as $80,000 beneficiaries under the 2012 estate plans drafted by Holmes. Eby alleges Goodwin befriended Webber, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2010, before helping her visit several lawyers to change her estate plans.

Webber's disabled grandson, Brett, is represented by attorney Lisa Bellanti. Webber's only living heir, he was excluded from her 2012 will and trust.

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